The science of plant morphology: definition, history, and role in modern biology

Abstract

As a scientific discipline, plant morphology is 211 yr old, originated by Goethe in 1790. It is a discipline that has largely been Germanic in practice. Because it took its origins from the study of the natural history of plants and the United States is principally an engineering society, the discipline of plant morphology in its pure form has never been widely practiced in this country. What has been labeled "plant morphology" in the United States has served largely as a handmaiden for systematics, using morphological characteristics to carve up diversity into its systematic subunits. Because the heart of plant morphology as a science is a focus on the convergences rather than the homologies in a phylogenetic sense, the German tradition of plant morphology is a unifying science that focuses on fundamental themes that transcend systematic boundaries. This paper traces the history of the science of plant morphology through the lineage of its principal practitioners: Goethe, Hofmeister, von Goebel, and Troll. It also evaluates the principles of plant morphology by applying them to the phyletically diverse Pteridophytes, showing that contemporary members of that group exhibit levels of shoot organization comparable to that of seed plants and discusses the implications of these findings.

Patrones Estructurales en Las Plantas Vasculares: Una Revision

“…No obstante diferentes términos y estructuras conceptuales han ido apareciendo y evolucionando desde ese entonces Gayana Bot. 62(1): [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]2005 ISSN 0016-5301 (Kaplan 2001). En las últimas décadas han surgido importantes aportes que hacen al aspecto dinámico e integral del crecimiento de la planta, con un enfoque morfológico o ecológico.…”

The fern Stauropteris oldhamia Binney: New data on branch development and adaptive significance of the hypodermal aerenchyma

“…Actually, we failed finding evidence of attachment of the largest (N-order) axes either to any rooting organ, or to a plagiotropic shoot and we are reduced to speculation about general morphology of the plant. In the last hypothesis, S. oldhamia with its orthotropic photosynthetic branching system, could be compared to the living Psilotum which is sometimes viewed as a "living rhyniophyte" (Bierhorst, 1971), an interpretation challenged by Kaplan (2001) who considered that the simplified nature of the leaf of Psilotum is suggestive of an evolutionary reduction rather than an enation homology. S. oldhamia is however clearly distinct from Psilotum in its repetitive quadriseriate branching system of bilaterally symmetrical axes and in the absence of any small foliar organ.…”

“…The zygopterid leaf showed a fundamental step toward the acquisition of the dorsiventrality (cf. Kaplan, 2001) or adaxial/abaxial identity (= "abdaxity" character of Corvez et al, 2012), which is yet absent in the phyllophore but present in the next-order rachises of zygopterids. Abdaxity, as defined from leaf traces with abaxial protoxylem in seed plants but adaxial protoxylem in ferns (Galtier, 2010), allows characterizing the megaphyll of most Euphyllophytes.…”

Morphological Plant Modeling: Unleashing Geometric and Topological Potential within the Plant Sciences

“…In the example in Figure 2B, topological FIGURE 1 | Plant morphology from the perspective of biology. Adapted from Kaplan (2001). Plant morphology interfaces with all disciplines of plant biology-plant physiology, plant genetics, plant systematics, and plant ecology-influenced by both developmental and evolutionary forces.…”